Baseball Gears Up For Navy/Vegas World Series
10/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
PITTSBURGH – The fall ball season comes to a close for the Pitt baseball team this weekend with the annual Navy-Vegas World Series taking place over three days from Saturday, Oct. 18 to Monday Oct. 20.
Saturday’s game will be a twilight affair, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The game on Sunday will start at 1 p.m. and the series will wrap up on Monday with a game at 3 p.m.
All three games will be played at Charles L. Cost Field and a free to the general public.
Last year, Vegas swept Navy in the World Series 2-0.
NAVY TEAM
The Navy team looks to have the slight advantage from its position players when it comes to senior leadership and pro prospects.
Senior Boo Vazquez, last year’s team leader with six home runs and 39 runs batted in, will power the Navy team offensively. The right side of the infield looks to be more than set with returning seniors Matt Johnson and Eric Hess. Johnson batted .227 with seven doubles in the spring, while Hess is the team’s leading returner with a .262 average. He also had five doubles and a homer.
Rounding out the infield is newcomers, freshman Charles LeBlanc and junior Ron Sherman. Leblanc, who spent the beginning of September playing for the Canadian Junior National team, was initially drafted out of high school. Sherman transferred in from Lackawanna College, where he led his team with 54 hits, six homers and 42 RBIs.
Two catchers are on the roster in junior transfer Alex Kowalczyk (Pitt CC) and freshman Ben Snyder. At Pitt Community College, Kowalczyk batted .356 with 14 doubles, three home runs and 39 RBIs. Snyder showcased his dual-threat in high school, gunning down 40-percent of runners while batting .308 as a junior.
Redshirt sophomore Jacob Wright and redshirt freshman Frank Maldonado will lock down the remaining outfield spots at centerfield and right field, respectively. Wright is an import from St. Petersburg College where he displayed some impressive speed. Maldonado sat out his first year at Pitt.
The pitching staff looks to be spearheaded by senior Hobie Harris, who has the potential to take over as a starter in his final year after posting a 2.70 earned run average in 20 appearances.
Senior Nick Parnell and sophomore Matt Pidich are the only other two pitchers on the Navy roster with experience on the mound for Pitt. However, each reliever only made one appearance last year. Two more pitchers, redshirt freshmen Josh Mitchell and Dan Furman have a year under their belts with the team, but sat out in 2014.
Of the remaining four pitchers on the Navy side, two have collegiate playing experience, while the other two are fresh out of high school. Junior Aaron Sandefur was 10-4 in two years at Bellevue College in Washington and recorded a 1.56 ERA last year. Junior Marc Berube also brings two years of pitching at the college level after his time at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. Freshman Matt Renck and Zachary Gakeler will add depth to the bullpen, with Gakeler serving as the second southpaw on the roster.
VEGAS TEAM
All four of Vegas’ infielders are returning players, including at catcher, while the entire outfield is new to Pitt this year. Senior Jordan Frabasilio is the lone senior positional player on the team. As a junior, he hit .226 with eight doubles and two home runs.
The remaining infielders are all sophomores that gained plenty of experience as rookies last year. Nick Yarnall played in 40 games and started 12, batting .241. Both Caleb Parry and P.J. DeMeo also provided depth off the bench as well. Parry was called upon in 26 games, making 17 starts and DeMeo played 12 games.
At catcher, Manny Pazos logged 44 games, including 38 starts in 2014. He finished that year with 12 RBIs and 13 runs scored.
Despite all three outfielders beginning their first year in Pittsburgh, two of them still boast collegiate action. Juniors Aaron Schnurbush and Rich Condeelis each spent two years playing junior college ball before transferring. Schnurbush is a two-way player that is also a left-handed hurler. Last year at Johnson County Community College, he batted .365 with 55 runs, six triples, five homers and team-highs of 18 doubles, 63 RBIs and a .494 on-base percentage. Condeelis was a teammate of Sherman’s at Lackawanna College.
Joining the duo in outfield is freshman Jawan McAllister, who pleasantly surprised the coaching staff thus far in fall ball. Filling out the positional players for Vegas is freshman Joseph McHugh.
Although the positional battle might be in favor of Navy, the pitching staff for Vegas may have an upper hand, making for a good battle between the two all series.
Leading the charge is sophomore T.J. Zeuch, who had the best era amongst all starters last year at 2.75. In15 games and nine starts, Zeuch struck out 41 batters.
Sophomore Sam Mersing and junior Garrett Wrambel are the other two hurlers that have pitched at the college level, but only Mersing did his throwing at Pitt, compiling a 2-2 record in 13 games. Wrambel is the third player to come to Pitt from Lackawanna, where he started 10 games last year – giving the Vegas team two complete starters.
Vegas’ four final pitchers are all first-years. Isaac Mattson was 6-1 with a 0.67 ERA as a senior last year. Joe Cominsky also posted gaudy numbers, putting together a 7-4 record and a 1.26 ERA with 115 strikeouts in 78 innings. Both Sam Proctor and Ryan Campbell were honored on All-Region teams by Perfect Game at the conclusion on their senior seasons last spring.